Bikaner State

Bikaner State was a princely state in the north-western most part of the Rajputana province of imperial British India from 1818 to 1947. The founder of the state, Rao Bika, was a younger son of Rao Jodha, the ruler and founder of the city of Jodhpur in Marwar. Rao Bika chose to establish his own kingdom instead of inheriting his father's. Bika defeated the Jat clans of Jangladesh, which today refers to the north and north-western Rajasthan, along with his uncle Rao Kandhal and his adviser Vikramji Rajpurohit, whereupon he founded his own kingdom. Its capital was the city of Bikaner. The emergence of the Mughal Empire witnessed the Kingdom of Bikaner pledging fealty to Mughal emperors, which led to the Kingdom becoming a loyal constituent of the Empire.

Covering a vast area of 60,391 km (23,317 sq mi), Bikaner State was the second largest state under the Rajputana Agency after Jodhpur State, with a revenue of Rs. 26,00,000 in 1901. Acquiescing to the 1947 call of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to integrate the princely states into the new independent India, Bikaner's then ruler, Lt General Maharaja Sir Sadul Singh, advised by his dewanK. M. Panikkar, was one of the first rulers of a princely state to be receptive to integrating with the Indian Union. The Maharaja of Bikaner set an example for the other heads of the princely states of India to follow by issuing a public appeal in April 1947 to join the Constituent Assembly of India.

The state was noted for the Bikaner style of miniature painting.